Woodward: Obama ‘Humble Superpower’ Approach Can’t Defeat ISIS

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” veteran journalist and author of “Obama’s Wars” Bob Woodward said America needs to face the fact that President Barack Obama “does not like war.”

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Woodward explained Obama believes the Untied States should be the “humble superpower,” which he said while that philosophy may contain some wisdom it unfortunately can not “defeat movements like the Islamic State.”

Woodward said, “But I think we need to step back a little bit and say what’s going on here? This was a war started by President Bush in 2003 with a very aggressive posture. We now have a new president and have had Obama as president for a long time and there is a different theory of the case. And let’s face it, Obama does not like war. He has an approach I guess I would call it kind of that the United States should be the humble superpower. That you are not going to send masses of troops in. We’re not going to have a hair trigger. If you think about that, that’s wise in many ways, but the problem here is the Islamic State is a giant problem and we are using a little bombing and few troops to achieve the defeat, to destroy this group as the president says is a strategy. It’s going to take something different or something more.”

“When you adopt the mantle of the humble superpower as we have,” he continued. “There may be a lot of wisdom in that. You are not going to go around and defeat movements like the Islamic State. It just can’t be done with this level of force. Maybe you can be lucky some days, but anyone you talk to, any military person, anybody that has thought this true, you just can’t get there. That I think Joe, you are making a good point. Do you do nothing or do you go all in as some people are advocating? Clearly, we’re not going to go all in. But is there some middle ground? Is there some way to adjust that? I don’t see those discussions taking place.”